ESPN now says in a statement that Arash Markazi's LeBacchanalia story was pulled because "Arash did not ... clearly state his intentions to write a story." Full statements are below, as is Rob King's explanation for how the story was mistakenly published.

A reader sends along these photos from the LeBacchanalia in Vegas. No naked ladies, but there is a man floating away to some casual Friday in the sky, and everyone seems to teeter precariously on the verge of fist-bumping everyone else.

The Twitter conspiracy theorists weighed in on ESPN's curious (but not surprising) decision to spike Arash Markazi's Most Excellent Vegas Vacation With LeBron Inc., piece and pinned it on LBJ's business henchman, Maverick Carter. Fun idea but probably not the case.